Salamon Rondon was a big hit at Newcastle United last season.
Newcastle managed to bring in Rondon for a season during the 2018/19 campaign and he was a huge hit at St. James’ Park.
Rondon scored 11 goals for Newcastle last term, and Rafael Benitez pushed hard for the club to bring him in on a permanent deal.
Newcastle would not back a transfer for Rondon though, as the board felt he was too old to pay a big fee for at 30.
Rondon went on to join Benitez in China at Dalian, which was a huge disappointment on Tyneside.
And Ritchie has admitted that Rondon’s attitude in training at Newcastle was remarkable, as he worked so hard to get himself into shape.
“I remember him at West Brom – I think he scored against Liverpool – and I just thought ‘this guy is a machine’ and that was three years before we signed him,” Ritchie said.
“We got him at Newcastle, he was overweight, dead heavy, didn’t really train, played a few and got injured – he just didn’t really get started – but this guy’s pure desire is to fight.
“He just wants to fight.
“In training, he’d want to pin people. Him and Jamaal in training every day, they’d be going at each other.
“It was a joke, and unbelievable.”
Newcastle tried to replace Rondon by spending big on Joelinton, but the Brazilian hasn’t had anywhere near the same sort of impact.
Joelinton has scored just one Premier League goal for Newcastle this term, and Newcastle are likely to be looking for a new number nine again in the summer.
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